Does anybody regret not picking consulting?

I know this has been talked about but I’m curious how many people at the post-mba level regret not doing consulting. 
 

I chose banking because I’ve always worked in financial services in some capacity and I enjoy finance. The problem is that as an IB associate I dont feel like I get to scratch that finance itch. While it’s part of my job, the main parts are dealing with clients and building presentations, just like you do in consulting. The only difference is consultants seem to have better exit ops and have weekends free. 
 

Maybe this is just my group. I’d love to hear others thoughts. 

 
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Gf is a consultant and I don't envy it. Their work is so fluffy and qualitative most of the time that it's almost nauseating. I'm talking 50 page slide decks about "cross-functional re-orientation of the ideation process workflow", just totally overly verbose consultant jargon nothingness. Most of the time you're staffed on a single project for months on end, as much as I can get crushed sometimes in IB, at least I get to work on a few different companies/situations to keep things fresh most of the time. The travel seems fun until you're staffed on a project in the middle of nowhere Ohio/Arkansas living out of a hotel room eating at the Cracker Barrel or the one nice restaurant in the surrounding 100 mile radius every night, running on a beat up old treadmill in a windowless hotel basement gym for months on end. Pretty much the only good thing I can see about the job is as you mentioned, they really don't work all that much when you consider monday and thursday are travel days and nobody is working until 2am. For bonuses you're talking $20k and a company branded Google Home. I'm not sure what you mean by better exit opps, I know of very few jobs that consultants can get than investment bankers cannot. 

 
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Im all for making fun of consulting (I have years of experience in both IB and Consulting), but this is such a gross over exaggeration. Consulting can be just as quantitative as IB. What you are describing is like saying IBD Analysts typically only build pitch decks and push logos around different corners of a PPT slide. 

Regarding the travel, it objectively sucks, and is pretty on par with what you described. However, many  firms are still offering WFH and adopting local models, meaning that they try and align you with clients in your city. This is done to cut back on travel. Moving forward it will be interesting to see how many consultants still travel 4 days a week, as just about every firm has proven that they don't need to travel in order to deliver successfully (or at least folks below Senior Manager / MD dont need to travel).  

Regarding bonuses, yes they pale in comparison to IB roles requiring the same YOE. Even at top firms, I would say you're probably getting about 50% of what an IBD Analyst is receiving (assuming you are a Consulting Analyst or their 1st and 2nd year title equivalent). Do remember that weeks over 80 hours are pretty rare in consulting. Additionally, the average is probably around 65 a week. Any of my friends in IB would drool at the sound of a 65 hour week right now. Bonuses vary because hours and expectations vary. IB is objectively more demanding, thus the bonuses are objectively much higher. 

One of the worst things about consulting is getting stuck on a brutal sweaty project. Some will last over a year with no end in sight, and you can be stuck working day in and day out with a horrendous team full of brutal type A folks. 

Lastly, exit opps. While it is true that it is harder to achieve the same type of exit opps that you would in IB, you also get exposure to other roles. Corp Strat is a role typically fllled by ex-consultants and much less so ex-bankers. Now there is a case to be made that most bankers would opt for PE / Corp Dev instead, which I understand. 

The main takeaway is consulting sucks for a lot of reasons, just like banking. Saying one is worse or completes less meaningful work is inaccurate and you are basing it off of your gf's limited experience. Having exposure to both industries I can confidently say a lot of it comes down to the passion you have for the work you do, your team, your ability to advance quickly, good mentors, and of course realistically solid comp. 

Edit: The worst part of consulting is extremely limited say in the work you do. To compare to IB, its similar to having no say in the deals you get staffed on. While that might sound like something you'd expect, the work you do in consulting can range far more than you would think. I was in a top strategy and ops group and one of my projects literally had me doing IT support for the better part of a month. Like are you fucking kidding me? Yes in IB you have to do some stupid admin work, but the amount of BS in Consulting is wayyyyyyy worse. The work in consulting can suck 10x more than some of the work in IB. I have spent entire days doing secretarial work (not as a consulting Analyst, but as a Consultant who hit promote) such as scheduling meetings. 

Edit: wording

 

it sounds like you might be some time removed from consulting - i would say that the travel situation is less of a drag now that we travel to co-locate with our team instead of the client site. i started during covid and started traveling last july (varying in frequency from weekly to monthly) - ive only been to major cities with MBB offices, staying at ritz carlton level hotels and regularly eating at michelin starred restaurants. not saying this to brag, but to say that travel has objectively improved now that travel to client site is less expected, but you still travel to be with your team.

id also say that some of the experiences you describe are inaccurate at MBB. at my firm, at the junior level, you would never get staffed on a project for more than 6 months without your consent, let alone a year. if youre truly suffering due to a toxic environment, you can lean on your staffing manager to get you rolled off onto something else. as far as i know, this is not common in banking because the office/teams are relatively small and if you have the misfortune of being in an office with a bunch of toxic VP/MDs then you're stuck with them

i also disagree with "limited say in the work you do" - at my MBB, you have access to the entire list of open projects and you network with the managers staffing those projects to figure out the best fit for what you want to do, which is much much more flexibility than you get in banking. not only that, youre only staffed on one project at a time. you say this is a disadvantage, but being staffed on multiple clients at once is exactly why banking has nightmare WLB - if all of your clients go live at once, you're screwed. 

 

Bff is a tech consultant specializing in AI strategy. You'd think that be super exciting. Man's current gig is designing "change management" surveys for C-suite, whatever the fuck that means. Probably gets exciting as you move up but goddamn he's like one step below partner atm. I'll go back to spreading comps over that any day of the week but that's just me. 

 

You can buy a house and live in the garage while renting out all your other rooms since you're traveling all the time anyway.

You get paid for traveling. You can read and do study while waiting for planes.

When you're done you can consult to small businesses in the area and still make bank. I've seen what break away consultants and lawyers can make while working whenever the heck they want. If you live a chill lifestyle and can live off of making $70-100k working whenever you feel like it (7~10 months a year), it's a good deal. 

 

Regret it a lot. Have a major in finance and did corp fin and banking. I generally love finance, numbers and all things complex and hence was very sure I won't be able to tolerate the constant Bsing consultants do. I still think i would be extremely pissed by the end of 2 years but also my friends who work there get a lot of credibility. Turned down an offer from MBB to go into an impact fund. But somehow, I've never had a proper brand on my CV and now it hurts to see some dude who doesn't know how to read a 10k get interview calls from UMMs while I don't despite actually knowing how to do the job. Guess grass is always greener on the other side.

Array
 

"A lot of PE firms" is misleading. Doing consulting basically blocks you off from access to top MF's. Countless people on and off WSO have done the LinkedIn profile analyses (just search it) and it is apparent that nobody from BX/KKR/Carlyle/TPG/Apollo come from consulting backgrounds. The only prominent MF that has a track record of taking consultants is Bain Capital. So don't stress about it and regret it if your goal is to end up in top PE.

 

I am 100% sure --- meaning I'm not saying this because "I think" --- that both IB and PE are almost 100% prestige games where people care a whole lot about where you went to school and how big was your current/ex-employer's brand name, etc. For HF guys it's less so because it doesn't imply real investment judgement. I was reading on Michael Steinhardt I think hiring some autodidact dude out of the blue and that guy ended up being a great analyst. 

For PE and banking, not sure about consulting, it's "hey did you work at a BB or EB". From my experience so far none of the PE funds actually cared about the actual deal experience or gave me a chance to try interviewing with them just because I don't work at a high-prestige place, despite some rock-solid deal experience on my resume. This happens to some VC funds as well. 

 

I feel like RX consulting would be a decent fit for what you are looking for in a consulting role. You are able to get the deep finance and modeling work while also getting deeper into understanding of strategy and running a business. It’s still finance work, and not CYA corporate consulting.
 

You get worked like a dog in the beginning of an engagement in many case, but afterwards you are pulling 65 hour weeks max with an easy 40 hours of billable work type weeks from time to time. Another perk is the most weekends off and out of the office by 5PM on Fridays for steady state deals. Most of your work gets piled on Monday or Tuesday, and even if you have something big for a Friday deadline, you send it out and the bankers are the one’s that get their weekends blown up.

Downside is the travel, but in the post-WFH era, the senior people are happy to not be flying every week again and dodge traveling a bit more. They have begun to enjoy their family time which helps as a junior. 
 

From an exit ops perspective, it’s easy to lateral to other RX firms for comp or jump back to banking if you hate it. Some people got to PE and others go to lenders/HFs that are your client or on the other side of the deal you are working on if you become respected.

Message me if you have any questions.

 

No. You learn a better skill set in banking, have more exit opps, make more money (in the U.K., I heard of some McKinsey analysts making £45k... seriously ?), and don’t travel. Travelling sounds cool at first, but when you need to wake up at 5am to catch your flight every Monday, it’s not as cool anymore. The only improvement is hours, though after 1-2 years in banking you can exit to a more WLB friendly job

 

What skillsets do you learn in IB that you don't learn in consulting?

 

Skillset is similar.

Exits opps are better in consulting save for PE/buyside, and even then Europe PE is considerably more friendly and keen on consultants than in the US.

Pay is really bad tho.

Travelling is not that much of an issue post Covid

 

Yes you probably built the same junior level XLS/PPT/communication skillset. However in banking you build more financial skills (waterfall analyses, IPO blob models, operating models, pro forma, etc) which [may be more useful in buyside besides just having the McKinsey brand name?]. I would guess on consulting you become better at networking and writing memos, but I haven’t worked in consulting myself. 
 

And the finality is also quite different, ie are you more interested in working on an IPO/M&A, or working on a post merger restructuring or figuring out the best entry price for a new perfume line in India ? That’s also quite important imo. Arguably banking work is more strategic vs. consulting work is more operational (I understood from my consulting interviews that the “growth strategy for F500 company” assignments were actually quite rare”. 

 

Worked in consulting pre-MBA. Traveled every week Monday - Thursday which I didn’t hate and worked with a somewhat close knit team with fairly light hours. Work was kind of analytical too. Tbh long duration, repeat projects were a bit annoying. Was going to go back post MBA, but ended up switching to banking and haven’t regretted. Think you do get lot more client interaction (both on frequency and level, eg do a sell side you are talking with CEO, CFO every day for months vs one weekly or monthly presentation and rest in your little huddle room), and issues that matter (seen a stressed out management or founder when process goes wrong or deal has issues?). I look at how we ignore the consultants Pe firms hire to DD or strategics bring in for a carve out or something - work on our ends seems just more interesting. Feels like the client relationships, even for our junior guys are much stronger and my network expanded lot more in banking than in consulting. And the pay … the pay is much better. Wider as you get older. 

 

Think the importance of this can’t be stated enough. Consulting projects vary a great deal even within your company, so MBB vs a T3 for example is not really even comparable. On the flip side, executing an M&A deal isn’t THAT different at GS vs a solid MM. The scale, stakeholders, etc. may be a bit different, but it’s still ultimately the same.

 

À PE partner once told me “ideally we would want all of associates to have banking, consulting and law experience” - so yeah it would help. 
 

However not sure how you plan to do it. Anything less than full time won’t be valued, and not sure doing something like 2+2 would be much better than just 2yrs at MBB or BB/EB

 

Check out valuation roles. I’m a business valuation analyst within PE investments. Do a lot of M&A val and equity and option pricing work.. pretty quantitative and includes market/Econ research..

In terms of technical work, you got ur DCF/WACC,comps,Tx and then black scholes and other options modeling for OPM work… we also have an illiquid securities team as well… my comp as a first year analyst is $105,000 and work about 45 hours on avg

 

As someone that worked in banking from A-1->VP-2 and then switched to Consulting, my thought is you should not regret it. I switched as the compensation, lower work requirements, massive flexibility, etc. just made more sense once I was approaching 30 years of age. If I started in Consulting and never went to Banking, I would regret that immensely. Why? The client work you do in Consulting is literally 'landing the plane' (e.g., market sizing, commercial DD, valuation, synergies, whatever) the way the client already has it in his or her mind. I've seen beautiful projects with incredibly insightful analysis get torched by Partners and Clients because it was negative on the deal/market/whatever the client wanted to get involved in. You jump through the hoop in Banking, but in Consulting you build the hoop based on the holder's requirements then jump through it however the client insists. The work is also mind-numbing at times and some of the analysis is so subjective that even the tiniest challenge will cause it to crumble.

Also... let's talk about what's on everyone's mind... compensation. Banking > Consulting. Granted Consultants may get the higher base, but the bonus is a laughable comparison between paths with IBD just dominating without a sweat. 

Lastly... exit ops. Banking just has the better mousetrap for PE. Consultants get have some success, but Banking? Come on... You may say, 'but what about corporate'? Sure, Consulting has the 1-up because you'll take on sleepy groups in the back-office or do due diligence for a deal that will never go through. Basically, the worst-of-the-absolute-worst in the corporate/industry world. At least Bankers can swap to Corp. Dev. (in-house M&A).

PS - Someone mentioned if having Consulting and Banking experience could help with PE or other roles. I'm not there yet. I tried getting back into banking after 2yrs in Consulting (mind you I had 8ish+ YOE of classic IBD) and I was told 'sorry, firms want plug and play'. Then I went to PE and they said 'we really just want a solid banking background or someone already on the buy-side'. Basically, they will discount your Consulting experience heavily if they consider it at all.

 

ZetaMale

As someone that worked in banking from A-1->VP-2 and then switched to Consulting, my thought is you should not regret it. I switched as the compensation, lower work requirements, massive flexibility, etc. just made more sense once I was approaching 30 years of age. If I started in Consulting and never went to Banking, I would regret that immensely. Why? The client work you do in Consulting is literally 'landing the plane' (e.g., market sizing, commercial DD, valuation, synergies, whatever) the way the client already has it in his or her mind. I've seen beautiful projects with incredibly insightful analysis get torched by Partners and Clients because it was negative on the deal/market/whatever the client wanted to get involved in. You jump through the hoop in Banking, but in Consulting you build the hoop based on the holder's requirements then jump through it however the client insists. The work is also mind-numbing at times and some of the analysis is so subjective that even the tiniest challenge will cause it to crumble.

Also... let's talk about what's on everyone's mind... compensation. Banking > Consulting. Granted Consultants may get the higher base, but the bonus is a laughable comparison between paths with IBD just dominating without a sweat. 

Lastly... exit ops. Banking just has the better mousetrap for PE. Consultants get have some success, but Banking? Come on... You may say, 'but what about corporate'? Sure, Consulting has the 1-up because you'll take on sleepy groups in the back-office or do due diligence for a deal that will never go through. Basically, the worst-of-the-absolute-worst in the corporate/industry world. At least Bankers can swap to Corp. Dev. (in-house M&A).

PS - Someone mentioned if having Consulting and Banking experience could help with PE or other roles. I'm not there yet. I tried getting back into banking after 2yrs in Consulting (mind you I had 8ish+ YOE of classic IBD) and I was told 'sorry, firms want plug and play'. Then I went to PE and they said 'we really just want a solid banking background or someone already on the buy-side'. Basically, they will discount your Consulting experience heavily if they consider it at all.

I’m curious how you think about the discounting consulting experience when it is restructuring consulting instead of management consulting. I am currently in rx consulting and there just isn’t a ton of churn at the firm so it is difficult to get a grasp on what the real exit ops are

 

It's a good call out re: RX vs. MC. I assume you're asking about Finance proper (e.g, Sell-Side, Buy-Side) exits. So let's focus on that in terms of RX.

RX--depending on your level--may yield some interesting exit ops (e.g., distressed credit, turnarounds), but--IMHO--you may want to consider the following when it comes to how your experience may be viewed/discounted.

Sell-Side: 1) FINRA Licenses (SIE, 79 for example). Unless I'm mistaken, RX lines in Big4 and other shops don't sit with the broker-dealer. Sell-Side--particularly banking--usually wants to see those licenses as some kind of indication that you worked on securities/transactions. 2) Translatable experience. It's my understanding RX deals with short-term cash flow workouts and re-orgs (e.g., weekly working cap schedules, bankruptcy PMO/schedules, turnaround roadmaps, etc.). You may know absolute/relative valuation, "get it" when it comes to capital markets/M&A, etc., but what direct experience runs parallel to the day-to-day of banking? Not saying that's a fair question, but it may come up. With this all said, you may be a Senior Consultant or Engagement Manager and sell-side would likely consider you a full step down (Senior Consultant -> 1st year Analyst, EM -> 3rd year Analyst or maybe 1st year Associate). This all gets more complicated if you have a graduate degree (MS or MBA)

Buy-Side: Larger PE shops (on the deal side) are likely a very long shot due to the non-traditional path. HF? Maybe a fund that focuses on value-altering catalysts (e.g., Bankruptcy, Restructuring events, Distressed), but--again--you'll need to know the 'legalese' taxonomy, fully understand public/private debt's role in the cap structure, show a background of being a subject matter expert in the implications on debt and/or equity value due to these events. VC? This would be a leap. Can't see any overlap in what you're doing now and what VC would want. I'm just speculating here, but I could potentially see an FP&A, Strategy, and/or 'workout' kind of role at the PE PortCo (individual or multiple portfolio companies) level. Meaning, you wouldn't sit with the deal team, but perhaps at an investment that's either going sideways or needs someone with your background to find/fix the upside via restructuring. Then--once you show your value--work your way up to the deal team. Again, this won't be the KKRs/Apollos/etc. of the world, but a respectable middle-market shop? Could be an opening to the big league (deal team). The saying of 'once you're in, you're in' has some merit. Meaning you could get a seat on the deal team and then lateral to a bigger shop. It's a long-term play and by no means guaranteed, but could be interesting.

 

I completely agree with your thoughts as an analyst. I Joined ib after my mba and am now questioning my choice. While I love finance, it seems like most mba associates end up exiting to Corp dev or Strat rather than buyside roles. Corp dev and Strat seem just as easier or easier to get out of consulting except while in consulting you at least have your weekends and some flexibility. Comp is definitely better in Ib but if you’re only sticking around for a few years the difference becomes less meaningful. 
 

how is your lifestyle in consulting? Am I being too negative to say I couldn’t get a HF role after being an IB associate?

 

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